


Riddles

by Yoshikuni Itoe (yennolenno)



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Adventure, Birthday, Complete, Family, M/M, Mystery, One Shot, Riddles, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-17
Updated: 2012-10-17
Packaged: 2017-11-16 12:19:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/539348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yennolenno/pseuds/Yoshikuni%20Itoe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Behind the riddles, a surprise awaits for Tsuna and Reborn! A belated birthday story. Slight R27 at the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Riddles

**Author's Note:**

> So, first story on this site. I won't be too active on this site, but if you want to look for me, I'll be on fanfiction.net under the pen name "Yoshikuni Itoe" :) Thanks and leave a comment/review!

Riddles

"Hmm?"

A thin eyebrow rises under the shadow of a black fedora as sharp, onyx eyes eye the expensive looking note on his bedside table. Noting that nothing is out of place, Reborn picks it up before scrunching up his nose. _Ugh, the flowery perfume._

 _A love note? Impossible. Just getting into the Vongola mansion is impossible, much less his private quarters._ He fingers the golden embroidery on the sheet of scented paper before taking note of the Vongola crest on it. _So, its not a love letter._

_'Happy birthday, Reborn. Solve the riddles and your present awaits you. Riddle #1: What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?'_

"A riddle, huh..."

The hitman rereads the note once more, scanning for any clue or a signature of the sender. Whoever had placed this in his room should be someone in this mansion, but who? There are hundreds of maids and butlers, the rowdy Tenth generation of Vongola and the Varia. With a slick flick of his wrist, he tugs his fedora lowers as he smirks.

"Hmph, challenge accepted."

xx

"'What goes around the world but stays in a corner?'" The young boss scratches his scalp as he frowns at the flowery scented note in his hand. He'd entered his office earlier today to start on his never ending pile of paperwork, only to find his desk cleared up and a white note on the mahogany table.

He had found it suspicious, especially the fact that his mountains of paperwork had gone missing overnight, and was cautious of the note. However, his hyper intuition didn't kick up a fuss about it and he picked it up. Tsuna rereads the note for the twentieth time this morning.

_'Do you know what day today is, Tsunayoshi? Solve these riddles and a surprise awaits you. Riddle #1: What goes around the world but stays in a corner?'_

Tsuna grumbles under his breath and pouts at the sheet of paper, in hopes that a clue might pop out from it and give him an answer. He'd never been good with his studies, what's more, riddles.

"What goes around the world but stays in a corner? Not me!"

Just as he is about to stomp on the note, there is a knock on the double doors of the office. The head butler of the mansion raises an eyebrow at the Decimo's foot that is held in midair, but dismisses it as another of the Tenth generation's weird antics.

"Decimo, a letter has arrived from Don Cavallone."

"Ah, yes. Thank you."

_Looks like the riddle will have to wait for now._

xx

"What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?"

Reborn murmurs to himself as he walks around the mansion, in search for the item. It's impossible for something to become wetter when it is drying. Dries... It doesn't mean that the thing itself becomes dry but dries something else. The hitman is tempted to face palm as the answer clicks in his head.

_A cloth, of course!_

He quickly turns around before walking in the opposite direction he was going in. _A cloth!_ The kitchen has cloths and rags, but they're not used to dry things, only to wipe objects. Reborn pauses in his steps. _Dries things... A towel!_ He grumbles to himself before turning around once more. _Of course, the towel!_

The head butler raises an eyebrow at the hitman's odd behavior of going in circles, but once again ignores it as another weird antic of this generation's occupants. None of them could be classed as normal since the first generation anyway.

xx

_He is so stupid._

_Stupid. Idiot. Stupido. Idiota. Baka._

As Tsuna continues to curse in his head, he glares at the answer to his riddle. It's been in front him for the past ten minutes, and he's only figured the riddle out. _Of course, a stamp what goes around the world but stays in a corner! A corner of the envelope, that is!_ Tsuna is tempted to rip his hair out at his idiocy.

His nimble fingers rip open the envelope before scanning the letter in it. din's familiar scrawl greets him. Ah, the usual greeting and worrisome reports of his latest tripping and bruises, but nothing too serious. However, Tsuna is tempted to yell in frustration at the next line.

_'Oh, fratello. I'm supposed to pass on the next clue to your surprise. Here's the next riddle! Riddle #2: Feed me, and I will live; Give me a drink, and I will die. What am I?'_

_Dino is in on this too? Is today Work Tsuna's Brain day?_ He purses his lips before lighting his flame with the intention to burn the letter from his beloved sworn brother to a crisp. Tsuna is surprised when the letter doesn't burn, but the words scramble up and form a new letter. He flickers his flame away and reads the new note, slightly tossing the paper in his hands from the heat.

_'Well done, Decimo. Fire lives when it is given fuel, but dies when water is sprayed.' Tsuna suppresses the urge to face palm. 'Now, on to the next riddle. Riddle #3: What starts with a T, ends with a T and has "T" in it? Good luck, Decimo.'_

_Oh, joy._

xx

Reborn's lips curl into a victorious smirk as he reads his latest riddle. _'Riddle #2: When young, I am sweet in the sun. When middle-aged, I make you gay. When old, I am valued more than ever.'_. He strides down the hallways, making his way down to Vongola's underground cellar. Flipping the light switch, the room lights up dimly to reveal bottles of red liquid.

"The answer is wine, of course."

A white note stands out in the dimly lit room. Reborn picks it out from between two bottles of red wine before reading it. He raises an eyebrow at the riddle, somewhat confused by it.

'You have done well, hitman. Riddle #3: I am a box that holds keys without locks, yet they can unlock your soul. What am I?'

 _A box that holds keys without locks? Unlocks your soul?_ Reborn knows not a box of that sort and he is irritated of not knowing. _Looks like this is going to be one tough code to crack._

xx

**CRASH!**

Tsuna cringes inwardly, his "boss face" taking over his facial features as he allows a slight killing intent to seep through his pores. Reborn had hammered the "boss face" into him for when he has meetings with the other Dons and his allies. He is, at the moment, having a meeting with two Dons who are coincidentally on bad terms with one another.

"I would appreciate it if the both of you solved your hatred for one another quietly and peacefully." His caramel eyes narrow at the Dons. "I don't want to have to replace the thirtieth teapot within the last twenty minutes. Tea from my homeland is very expensive..."

The two Dons sit stock-still in their seats, in fear of the Decimo's quiet anger. He may be the kindest mafioso in the underground world, but he is also well known for his quiet anger that punishes dreadfully. Tsuna pushes a couple of documents towards the Dons and they quickly scribble their signature on it.

"Well, I hope our alliance will benefit us and will continue in the future. Thank you for spending some of your time with me."

After bidding adieu, the Dons scramble off to the safety of their headquarters while Tsuna scrambles onto the floor, shocking the maid who had entered to clear the mess, before picking up the broken pieces.

"D-decimo! Please let m-me clean up the mess! It's v-very dangerous!"

Tsuna grumbles in frustration when there isn't anything on the shards of the teapot. He then turns to the young maid, determination burning brightly in his eyes.

"Where did you throw the broken shards of the last thirty teapots?"

"I-in the kitchen's rubbish bin."

"Grazie!"

_The answer to the riddle was teapot!_

xx

Reborn slams open the door to Vongola's music room, panting slightly from his marathon around the large mansion. As useful as the confusing twists and turns of the corridors were for confusing intruders, they're simply annoying in his search of this "box that holds keys without locks, yet they can unlock your soul".

A crisp white note is wedged in between the keys of the piano, a soulful instrument among many others in the room. Reborn picks it up hastily before scanning the next riddle.

_'Riddle #4: An iron horse with a flaxen tail. The faster the horse runs, the shorter his tail becomes. What is it?'_

_An iron horse with a flaxen tail?_ Reborn brings his mug up to his lips and slurps on the strong, black liquid. _Flaxen, flax. Flax is made into thread, and thread grows shorter when the needle sews faster!_ A smirk on his face, Reborn dashes out of the music room in search for the sewing kit Luce had given to him months prior.

xx

Bandages of various patterns and cartoon characters are adorned on the mafioso's fingers as he pieces the message together. He frowns at the latest riddle, his mind going blank.

_'Riddle #4: I am big and mighty, and scared of sharp objects. I feed everyone and watch people go by. I have my feet stuck and hate talking with my big mouth. What am I?'_

Maids and butlers walk pass the dumbstruck Decimo seated on the floor, giggling at his child-like confusion on his face. They'd been ordered to not help either the Decimo or Reborn in their search for their surprise, and to continue as usual. _Good luck, Decimo,_ , they pray in their hearts as the boss continues to stare forlornly at the riddle.

xx

"That was easy..."

_'The final riddle! Riddle #5: At night they come without being fetched. By day they are lost without being stolen. What are they?'_

Reborn purses his lips as he places the sewing kit back into the drawer of his bedside table. _Come without being fetched, lost without being stolen... What could they be?_

xx

Tsuna was never a tree hugger, but just for this moment, he'll be one. After hours of searching for his clue, he spotted a note stuck onto a tall tree while ransacking his bedroom. His arms are wrapped around the thick trunk of the tree, feeling relieved at having found the clue.

Once done hugging the tree, he picks up the torchlight that is conveniently placed near the note, at the foot of the tree. The sky is dark and the air is cool as Tsuna reads the note.

_'Your final riddle! Riddle #5: I'm white, I'm round, but not always around. Sometimes you see me, sometimes you don't. What am I?'_

Tsuna cocks his head to his right as he tries to guess the answer. _After all, it is his last riddle!_ He folds the note in half to slip it into his pocket, but a messy scrawl on the back catches his eyes.

_'P.S. Look up.'_

xx

Reborn steps out of the mansion and into the back garden of the estate, releasing a sigh of relief. He'd finally figured out the answer after hours of pointless thinking. _The answer is the stars, of course!_ They come at night without having to be fetched, and they disappear when daylight comes.

As he steps into the garden, he breath catches. Under the bright moonlight, he spots his ex-student and current Decimo standing under a tall tree, looking up at the moon. _Is this the surprise in the note?_

"Tsunayoshi."

Tsuna jumps at the sudden voice before spinning around to face the hitman. He'd been so engrossed in the full moon that he hadn't noticed his sadistic ex-tutor. He cringes, expecting a whack to the head for not being aware of his surroundings. However, he is surprised when something soft and warm meets his cheek. He opens an eye timidly at the smirking hitman.

"Cute."

Slender fingers grasp the Decimo's chin and tilts his head upwards, a pair of lips diving in to plant a searing kiss on the young boss' lips. Tsuna's eyes widen dramatically and smacks at the hitman's chest, only to submit into the intoxicating kiss. Reborn's tongue comes to play and teases the brunet's, earning a slight squirm from the brunet and a soft moan. Feeling daring, a hand slips under the white dress shirt and-

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE EXTREME, SAWADA!"

The couple jolt apart at the loud yell, Tsuna blushing furiously while Reborn is irked at the interruption. A big cake with purple fumes can be seen in Ryohei's arms as Gokudera chases after the boxer, yelling at him to be careful of the cake. However, as everything goes, Ryohei gets overexcited and throws the cake in his extremeness.

Tsuna watches in horror as the cake comes in his direction, but an arm snakes around his slim waist and pulls him out of harm's way, into a certain hitman's arms. Tsuna face is buried in the front of Reborn's suit, the scent of spicy cologne filling up his sense of smell.

"Jyuudaime! Are you alright?" Gokudera turns to the grey-haired boxer, his tone turning harsh. "God dammit, Lawnhead! You could have killed Jyuudaime with Bianchi's cake!"

"I EXTREMELY DO NOT GET IT!"

"Baka-"

"Maa, maa, Gokudera, Ryohei..." Yamamoto's arms restrain the half Italian from taking out his rage on the boxer. "What matters is that Tsuna's fine, right? Reborn saved him!"

As the Guardians fall into their regular routine of bickering, Tsuna squeezes out of Reborn's grasp and rushes over to them, in efforts of containing whatever damage that is about to happen. Reborn huffs in disappointment at having his surprise ruined, but no matter. _They can always continue later._

Tsuna shivers as a sudden chill runs down his spine. He has a feeling that something good yet bad is about to happen to him tonight.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you had fun figuring out the riddles! ^^


End file.
